Gusto 501 is a multi-level, all-day Italian cafe, restaurant and bar with a rooftop patio and a capacity of over 200.

The space encompasses a ground floor Trattoria, a second floor Mezzanine, and a bi-level upstairs Attico cocktail bar area open in the evening on weekends.

Design by award-winning Partisans incorporates an all-glass facade, a skylight and a modern take on terra cotta brick.

An open concept kitchen on the ground floor is equipped with a wood fire grill, and unlike Gusto 101, a wood fire pizza oven.

Coffee, traditional Italian pastries, and fresh bread can be picked up from a cafe area on this floor.

Antipasti at the Trattoria includes Cozze alla Scapece ($15), a dish that inventively pairs mussels with cubes of polenta, zinging chili and crispy parsley leaves, all sitting in a viscous, earthy sauce.

A Scarola salad ($14) is topped with heirloom apple, walnut, pecorino and red onion, and dressed with a truffle vinaigrette.

Rapini e Salsicce ($17) is a classic, chewy thin-crust pie with fior di latte, a big kick of spicy chili and a nice smoky taste thanks to the wood fire oven.

Lasagna ($22) is a starring pasta here, impressive right off the bat just because it's round. There's more to the shape than just aesthetics, though: concentric rings of pasta create a 360-degree crispy edge that cradles a molten core of rich lamb ragu and ricotta.

Trattoria entrees top out at $40 for Tagliata (grilled and sliced) prime striploin accompanied by a creamy cauliflower mash.

A Carote side ($10) avoids being boring by combining the lively flavours of pistachio, orange, rosemary and brown butter.

Spuntini available in the Attico space include Soffiato ($7), deep-fried puffs of collagen that are somehow fatty and light at the same time, a little like chicharron. 

Risotto Verde for $20 is a larger, pricier spuntini option, coloured green with chlorophyll and topped with very crispy, large hunks of hen of the woods mushroom.

Get more bang for your buck with a buttery $10 panino, stuffed with mortadella, taleggio and a crunchy, saucy pistachio mixture.

Opt for a dense Cioccolato & Nocciola cake ($11), or alternately, a lighter blood orange zabaglione for dessert.

The Cosmopolis ($19) is by far the most theatrical drink served at the cocktail bar. A juicy batched mix of peach-infused Tito's, lemon and Aperol "Gusto" grenadine is carefully injected into a house-made ice sphere.

It's topped off with a sprig of rosemary to create the optical illusion of a fruit, then smashed.

The Continental Aspro ($18) also has a cool look with charcoal-infused Bearface whisky for a grey colour and shapes stencilled into a foamy egg white cap.

This is one of the most ambitious projects yet from restaurant group Gusto 54, also behind Gusto 101 and Chubby's Jamaican.